Marco Andretti in search of first Toronto victory

KEVIN MINGORA, THE MORNING CALL

KEVIN MINGORA, THE MORNING CALL

Paul ReinhardSpecial to The Morning Call

How many time has Marco Andretti won at Toronto?

Marco Andretti has never led a lap in an IndyCar race on the streets of Toronto, yet he says, "Toronto is definitely on the top three list of places where a win would mean the most — along with Indy and Long Beach."

The Verizon IndyCar Series begins the second half of its season this weekend with the Honda Indy Toronto. Practice begins Friday with qualifying on Saturday and the 85-lap main event to be run at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Andretti, the third-generation, 28-year-old IndyCar driver, has led in only two of the first nine races. He has seven top 10 finishes, his best being a second in a rain-shortened race in Detroit. But he hasn't abandoned his optimism as he strives to end a 69-race victory lane drought.

Andretti has raced at Toronto six times, with a pair of fourth-places finishes the best on his resume.

"The Canadian fans are so passionate about racing and it's always a great weekend," Andretti said. "We really need to keep a streak of top five or six finishes going, but I really want to win."

While Andretti and the rest of the drivers with Honda power have been playing catch-up against the Chevrolet teams, consistency has been one thing on the positive side of the ledger for Andretti.

He is the only driver in the series to have completed every lap in the first nine races and his finishes in the past four races have been 6-2-5-5.

"I'm really happy with the No. 27 crew. We're really maximizing as much as we can in situations," Andretti said over the weekend in Texas. "All we can do is the best we can and we just have to keep plugging."

And after gaining three positions in the final laps to get fifth in the race, he said, "We were sort of just hanging on to it tonight."

He'll hope to have a much more positive assessment of this week's event in Toronto. It's a family thing.

In the prime of his career, Marco's dad, Michael Andretti, owned Toronto. He won four races there from 1991 to 1995 (he didn't race there in 1993 because of his commitment that season to Formula One).

He led every lap of the 1991 and 1992 races; and while the event was shortened by the time he returned in 1994, he led 71 of 98 in '94 and 74 of 98 in '95.

Not all the victories were nearly as dominating, but maybe that's what endeared the Toronto course to Michael Andretti.

His final win on the course was in 2001. He started 13th and very nearly got wiped out on the start, stalled the engine, managed to get going again without losing a lap, but was in last place. But on a day when the competition had all kinds of trouble, he worked his way back and finally got the lead with 25 laps to go. He never relinquished it.

In his 16 starts in Toronto, Michael won a record seven times. In 2012, he was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and said, "I've always considered Canada to be almost like my second home."

"Ever since we first went there in 1986, both my dad and I have felt really welcome in Toronto," Michael Andretti told Canadian motor sports writer Norris McDonald.

"I don't know if it's the Italian heritage or what, but I always have a good feeling in that city — which I happen to think is a really cool place."

In 2003, in the midst of the contentious open-wheel racing split, Michael moved from a driver in the CART series to a team owner in the Indy Racing League. The IRL didn't race in Toronto, which remained faithful to CART.

When the two sanctioning bodies finally resolved the conflict in 2008, Toronto was not on the schedule, but Michael's Andretti Green Promotions stepped in and purchased the rights to the event beginning in 2009.

"It was extremely sad … when we weren't able to be here racing, and then to see that the race was just going to go away, I said to myself, 'This can't happen,'" Michael said at the time.

It has been part of the IndyCar series since 2009. The only victory for Andretti Autosport came in 2012 by Ryan Hunter-Reay.

As for the other venues, it's understandable that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be on the racing bucket list for Andretti.

The track and the Indianapolis 500 owe the Andrettis something for all the frustration it has given the family over the years. No need to rehash the 1-for-70 record for five drivers with the Andretti name.

The family has a lot more good memories of Long Beach, however.

Marco's grandfather, Mario, got his first Formula One victory on the streets of that California city in April of 1977. He started second and passed Jody Scheckter with four laps to go.

When Formula One pulled out of Long Beach, the race there became part of the CART series in 1984. Andrettis won the first four races there — Mario in 1984-85 and 1987 and Michael in 1986. Then , 16 years after his first Long Beach win, Michael did it again in 2002.

Given that history, Marco considers Long Beach pretty much of a must-win for his career, but as of now, his best finish there is sixth.

KARAM OUT FOR TORONTO — On Sunday, Sage Karam, after finishing 12th in Texas, was "looking forward to Toronto with momentum," according to his post-race tweet.

But on Thursday, the IndyCar Series rookie tweeted, "Early morning. Off to Toronto. Supporting the team this weekend and learning as much as I can."

What happened between those two posts was that Chip Ganassi Racing decided to put Sebastian Saavedra in the No. 8 car for Toronto.

No explanation was given for the driver switch, but Kelby Krauss, Karam's public relations representative for Ganassi, forwarded the team release about Saavedra and added, "Sage is scheduled to continue until Sonoma, which was previously announced as a Saavedra race."

That means that Karam, the 20-year-old Nazareth High grad, will race next in the MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on June 27.